8 Responses:

i'm shocked and amazed at the level of hypocrisy they're displaying. how can they think people are still going to fall for the big lie? goebbels would be proud. i mean, yeah, i just lived up to godwin's law, but i think it's a pretty valid historical analog.

it's kind of a mixed message.it complains about some of the things bush is pushing, but talks about it all as the fault of the Terrorists.

it really strikes me more like cold-war era propaganda. like portraying when "They" take over "us". I remember a video in the 80s we had to watchin in skool. it showed a classroom with a new teacher. the teacher basically tore down everything that a red-blooded american patriot ought to stand for, but did it in a very subtle manner. for example, the teacher talked about the american flag, and how surely if it's that important, all the students should have a part of it. so the flag was taken down and cut into pieces for the kids. the teacher asked about prayer, and then had the kids pray for candy to god. no candy appeared. she then had them change it to "our leader", and while all the heads were bowed, she snuck out some candy.

those ads didn't strike me as being targeted at internal threats, so much as a rallying cry for american patriotism against the evils of terrorism.

They can all be read as "this is what it's like in other countries, but we're demonstrating it on Americans because you're too stupid to understand the concept unless we bring the analogy home; and you wouldn't want America to be like that".

So I think they can all be read as either "resist terrorists (who hate freedom!) at all costs" or "let's not let Bush go the police state route". It's not clear to me which way was intended. The Main Street USA one suggests the former, but it may not have been the same people. Personally, I hope that the ambiguity is intentional.

the movie you saw was a video version of James Clavell's The Children's Story... my high school wasn't alow to put on the play because it contained a scene of someone cutting a flag (this was back when an anti-flag burning amendment was proposed)

those are some cool ads indeed (take *that* adbusters!) :), but the sad thing is that we're already there, especially with libraries. if my library gets searched for instance, it's a crime if any of us even disclose that to the public.

I really hope that in 2004 (or sooner) that there are campaign ads that refer to the president and attourney general as "Herr Bush and Herr Ashcroft", respectively and also mock the new "Homeland Security" phrase.

out of that list of psa's, the only one that i've seen broadcast at all was the first one, the very benign main street ad with the flags everywhere. i wonder if my local broadcasters are just too chickshit to air them, perhaps?